‘Climate Change’ Is At Fault For Animal Bites Or Something

By William Teach December 13, 2018 – 10:30 am

There is always something new for the Cult of Climastrolgy to link to their cult. There used to be a massive list of all the things blamed/linked to ‘climate change’, which is sadly gone. You have other ones here and here, and some others around. This would be perfect

From the article

Animal-related injuries lead to health care costs of more than $1 billion a year in the United States, according to a new study — and they’re happening more often.

The rate of all animal attack injuries has increased over the past 10 years, according to Dr. Joseph Forrester, one of the authors of the study published Tuesday in the BMJ. He anticipates that it will continue to rise, partially because of climate change.

The most common cause of injury is bites from non-venomous arthropods, the group that includes spiders, mosquitoes, ticks and centipedes. As temperatures rise, the habitats of some of these creatures will get larger as they will be able to survive in more places, meaning they are able to injure more people.

The habitats of larger animals, such as bears, are overlapping more and more with human developments and recreational activities, as well, so injuries from these animals could also increase, the study says.

So, in reality, it’s just a matter of more humans going where the animals and such are. But, hey, they always have to include ‘climate change’ because that’s what cultists do.

Read: ‘Climate Change’ Is At Fault For Animal Bites Or Something »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

California’s Latest Idea: Tax Your Text Messages

By William Teach December 13, 2018 – 8:01 am

California, shockingly, is the not the state with the highest tax burden in the nation. Depending on which source you check, it’s somewhere from number six to number ten in tax burden. But, they’re working hard to raise their ranking

California proposes a plan to tax text messages

California regulators want to tax text messages to increase funds for programs that bring connectivity to underserved residents.

A new surcharge proposed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) wouldn’t be a per-text tax, but a monthly fee based on a cellular bill that includes any fees for text-message services. Most carriers offer a flat fee option for texting, and already charge a similar fee for other services included in the bill — such as phone calls. The exact structure of the charge would vary from carrier to carrier.

The commission will vote on the measure January 10, 2019, and is facing strong opposition from industry trade groups like the CTIA, which represents AT&T Mobility, Sprint, and T-Mobile. (AT&T is the parent company of CNN.)

The 52-page proposal by CPUC Commissioner Carla J. Peterman lays out the details of the plan, and says the state’s Public Purpose Program budget is going up while incoming fees to fill it are decreasing. Currently the surcharge rate is less than 7%.

This could cost consumers up to $44 million a year. How much will it be per person? Even if it is 50 cents per month, it’s too much. It’s the principle of the thing, of the notion that government dinks and dunks us to death on taxes and fees.

And, really, why should citizens be paying for other citizens to have mobile phones? No one pays for mine except me. I could see getting low income a basic non-smartphone with phone service only for safety, but they’re getting smartphones with Internet and everything. If they want this, let them pay for it. There are some who truly deserve public assistance. Most don’t let them get a job to pay for the phone.

That may be overblown, but how much does go to illegals, who obtain all sorts of public services, especially in places like California?

Read: California’s Latest Idea: Tax Your Text Messages »

Posted in Democrats, Taxation | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Congratulations! You Survived One Year Without Net Neutrality And The Internet Still Works!

By William Teach December 13, 2018 – 7:38 am

Back before my Twitter account was killed for unknown reasons, I posted a tweet daily about #AmericaWithoutNetNeutrality, making fun of the wankers who thought Doom was coming. Nope, sorry, we survived (via Twitchy)

It is working just fine. We haven’t heard any stories of Big Tech doing bad things to the Internet, even though the repeal of NN was a direct threat to reproductive freedom, according to the ghouls at NARAL.

Supporters of NN aren’t giving up, though: giving the federal government massive power over  the Internet, treating it like a 1940’s phone system, is very important for them

(Gizmodo) Net neutrality proponents now have less than two weeks to convince 38 House lawmakers to support an effort to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality. Seventeen of those votes could come from Democrats who have yet to sign on—all of whom have received significant contributions from internet service providers such as Comcast.

Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), Congress could undo the controversial FCC rules passed in a party-line vote last December, which effectively reversed the 2015 Open Internet Order that had established net neutrality principals as federal regulation. In May, the U.S. Senate passed a CRA resolution for this purpose with the aid of three Republicans.

Unfortunately for supporters, the CRA rules for the House and Senate differ in one significant respect: In the Senate, a discharge petition—that which forces a vote on a CRA resolution—only requires 30 signatures, a threshold far below a majority. In the House, however, a majority, or 218 signatures, is required before a vote can be called.

Even if it manages to get a vote and passes in the House, the Senate will not vote to bring back Obama’s Internet control rules.

Now, the actual order that ended Obama’s Net Neutrality went fully into effect on April 23, 2018, and some are still telling us that Doom is coming, much like they do with ‘climate change’. Come April 23, 2019, when Bad Things haven’t materialized (just like they rarely did prior to Obama’s internet control rule and the Internet flourished from a tiny thought to everyone being addicted to it), Democrats will still push for it. Because virtually everything the do is about increasing the power of the government over your life.

Read: Congratulations! You Survived One Year Without Net Neutrality And The Internet Still Works! »

Posted in Web/Tech | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Incoming New York AG Plans Political Witch Hunt Against Trump, Family, And Associates

By William Teach December 12, 2018 – 3:40 pm

When Democrats talk about “saving our Democracy”, does that include political investigations?

Incoming New York attorney general plans wide-ranging investigations of Trump and family

New York Attorney Gen.-elect Letitia James says she plans to launch sweeping investigations into President Donald Trump, his family and “anyone” in his circle who may have violated the law once she settles into her new job next month.

“We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” James, a Democrat, told NBC News in her first extensive interview since she was elected last month.

James outlined some of the probes she intends to pursue with regard to the president, his businesses and his family members. They include:

  • Any potential illegalities involving Trump’s real estate holdings in New York, highlighting a New York Times investigation published in October into the president’s finances.
  • The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian official.
  • Examine government subsidies Trump received, which were also the subject of Times investigative work.
  • Whether he is in violation of the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution through his New York businesses.
  • Continue to probe the Trump Foundation.

So, essentially, a political witch hunt. What would happen if the FBI decided to suddenly investigate her? You can bet she’d throw a fit.

Does she want to open this can of worms? Do we want to formally use the power of the government for massive retaliatory investigations against political adversaries? Democrats should remember that this can work both ways. But, they just can’t accept the results at the ballot box, and when the political atmosphere becomes beyond toxic, it’ll be on their heads.

Read: Incoming New York AG Plans Political Witch Hunt Against Trump, Family, And Associates »

Posted in Democrats | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach December 12, 2018 – 1:00 pm

…is a wet world from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Pacific Pundit, with a post on Cryin’ Chuck Schumer being Trump’s bitch.

Read: If All You See… »

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Tennessee Hit By 4.4 Earthquake, ‘Climate Change’ To Blame

By William Teach December 12, 2018 – 10:00 am

How you can tell when something is a cult

Magnitude 4.4 earthquake shakes Tennessee, Georgia

Residents in Tennessee and Georgia got a big surprise Wednesday morning: the rumblings of an earthquake.

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey at around 4:14 a.m. ET, with its epicenter near Decatur, Tenn., which is roughly more than 150 miles from Nashville.

An aftershock was felt about 13 minutes later with a magnitude of 3.3, said the USGS.

According to Atlanta TV station WXIA, the earthquake was felt as far as northern Georgia.

And, of course

More below the fold

Read More »

Read: Tennessee Hit By 4.4 Earthquake, ‘Climate Change’ To Blame »

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NY Times Editorial Board So Excited Over Macron Responding To Protesters They Forget To Say What Protest Was About

By William Teach December 12, 2018 – 8:02 am

Is it still fake news when it is in the opinion section? Yes, yes it is

Macron Blinks
France’s imperious young leader has heard the anger of his marginalized citizens and has begun to respond.

The Times usually reserves the word imperious for Trump, which is not a good thing. Unless them mean “intensely compelling.” But, they won’t give up on their bro-love for Macron

President Emmanuel Macron did what he had to do on Monday after a month of massive grass-roots protests, going on national television to acknowledge that he had been out of touch with the many people outside France’s major cities struggling to make ends meet and granting them some immediate tax cuts and income increases.

For a young president who swept to power with a resounding majority a scant 19 months ago at the head of a movement that promised to put the republic “on the move,” it was a painful moment, especially since it remained unclear whether his concessions would defuse the revolt of the “Yellow Vests” (whom he never mentioned). But it was not a surrender: The 13-minute address contained no apology and no sign that Mr. Macron had any intention of abandoning his economic program.

A lot rides on Mr. Macron’s ability to survive and respond to this uprising, not only for France but for all Western democracies in which the deindustrialized hinterlands have fostered an angry sense of marginalization and neglect. The Yellow Vests on the Champs-Élysées are cousins of the British who voted for Brexit, the Americans who voted for Donald Trump, and the Poles, Hungarians and Italians who elected populist, anti-democratic governments.

Nowhere is it mentioned that this all started over climate change taxes on fuels going up again, nor anywhere else in the article. And the NYTEB featuring racist Sarah Jeong attempts to make this all about those countryside yahoos, making them out to be right wingers, when, in fact, there is a mixture of people from the cities, including Paris, the countryside, and the suburbs. They are middle and lower class. They run from very far left to very far right.

It’s like the members of the editorial board failed to actually read any of the NY Times articles on the protests/riots. Or simply ignored what they were about.

All of that seems clear in retrospect, and Mr. Macron insists he has absorbed the message of the Yellow Vests and will pay heed to the ordinary citizens whose tax-eaten income barely stretches to the end of the month. Less clear is whether the demonstrators, whose Saturday invasions of Paris and other major cities have had no single organizer or common agenda, will be satisfied. And if the Saturday protests continue, the demonstrations are likely to be increasingly hijacked by violence-prone thugs.

Again, no mention of much of the tax-eaten income being eaten by France’s climate change policies. Sure, not all. I wonder if the NYTEB even considered that this is one reason Republicans are against the Big Government Democrats push and the Times approves of? That these big government policies lead to hard times for the middle and lower classes? Because they do.

Oh, and that Warmists love all these climate policies and taxes right up to the point they realize that they’ll be paying for it themselves.

Read: NY Times Editorial Board So Excited Over Macron Responding To Protesters They Forget To Say What Protest Was About »

Posted in Global Warming, Wonky Media | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Migrant Caravan Members Demand $50,000 To Leave Or To Be Let In To U.S.

By William Teach December 12, 2018 – 7:44 am

What is extortion?

Most states define extortion as the gaining of property or money by almost any kind of force, or threat of 1) violence, 2) property damage, 3) harm to reputation, or 4) unfavorable government action. While usually viewed as a form of theft/larceny, extortion differs from robbery in that the threat in question does not pose an imminent physical danger to the victim.

Extortion is a felony in all states. Blackmail is a form of extortion in which the threat is to expose embarrassing and damaging information to family, friends, or the public. Inherent in this common form of extortion is the threat to expose the details of someone’s private lives to the public unless money is exchanged.

It’s also a federal felony

Migrant group demands Trump either let them in or pay them each $50G to turn around: report

Two groups of Central American migrants marched to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana on Tuesday with a list of demands, with one group delivering an ultimatum to the Trump administration: either let them in the U.S. or pay them $50,000 each to go home, a report said.

Among other demands were that deportations be halted and that asylum seekers be processed faster and in greater numbers, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The first group of caravan members, that included about 100 migrants, arrived at the consulate around 11 a.m. Alfonso Guerreo Ulloa, an organizer from Honduras, said the $50,000 figure was chosen as a group.

“It may seem like a lot of money to you,” Ulloa told the paper. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.”

Oh, so they’re going to play the Victimcard in attempting to extort the federal government, and gave President Trump 72 hours to respond. So these migrants have now committed a federal felony, and as such, are no longer allowed into the United States. Besides, they were never invited.

They do know they won’t get the money, right? Perhaps they should hit up George Soros and all the Leftist groups who helped move them from Honduras.

A letter from the second group of about 50 migrants arrived at the consulate around 1:20 p.m. asking the U.S. to speed up the asylum process and to admit up to 300 asylum seekers each day at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. Currently, around 40 to 100 are admitted.

You do not get to dictate to a country you were not invited to any terms of entry.

Many have been granted asylum in Mexico. Many are just hanging. Many have attempted illegal entry. And many have left

“A lot of people are leaving because there is no solution here,” said Douglas Matute, 38, of Tijuana. “We thought they would let us in. But Trump sent the military instead of social workers.”

He told you he would do that. He told you not to come. You did not listen. You were surely duped by all the activist groups he enticed you to travel thousands of miles. Go home and apply for asylum at the U.S. embassy in Honduras.

Read: Migrant Caravan Members Demand $50,000 To Leave Or To Be Let In To U.S. »

Posted in Illegal Immigration | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Inevitable: CNN Links Migrant Caravan To ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach December 11, 2018 – 6:51 pm

You can bet that someone at CNN said “say, has anyone linked the migrant caravan to Other People’s carbon pollution yet, and, if not, why not?” Forgetting that CNN is in Atlanta, which gets the majority of its power from nuclear, coal, and natural gas. And that CNN uses vast amounts of energy for its news operations, as well as vast amounts of fossil fuels to gather the news from around the nation and the world

From the link

Overlooked is this factor: climate change.

The “dry corridor” of Central America, which includes parts of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, has been hit with an unusual drought for the last five years. Crops are failing. Starvation is lurking. More than two million people in the region are at risk for hunger, according to an August report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

“Under normal circumstances, without any change in rain patterns, people are already struggling,” said Edwin Castellanos, dean of research at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and a global authority on climate change in Central America. “In some of these dry areas, we have seen events of children actually dying out of hunger. So, it is that extreme.” (snip)

Studies have not definitively tied this particular drought to climate change, but computer models show droughts like the one happening now are becoming more common as the world warms.

So, in other words, it’s all bullshit. Could climatic changes be causing problems, or is it simply the short term weather, which does things all the time? Remember, we were told about all sorts of “permanent droughts” in areas around the world, then, a few years later we are being told about “permanent flooding” in the exact same areas. Weather is dynamic, and patterns can last for years.

Nor is there proof that ‘climate change’ is mostly/solely caused by Mankind. And correlation is not causation. Regardless, when will CNN give up their own massive carbon footprint? Paying for a few trees doesn’t cover it.

Read: Inevitable: CNN Links Migrant Caravan To ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming, Wonky Media | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

State Run Health System To Virtue Signal With Raise To $15 An Hour

By William Teach December 11, 2018 – 3:18 pm

Let’s first note that the difference between $15 an hour in North Carolina, even a city like Raleigh, is vastly different between $15 an hour in northern and other Liberal states. It goes a lot further. Consider that I purchased my 1,200 square foot townhome for $95k about 10 years ago or so, and, while the floor plan is not my favorite, I have this view out the back door

Obviously, not all the time with the snow. But, it is an elevated deck, and no townhomes (they are all duplexes) behind me. There is a row of them running along the right side of that pic. And the greenway runs on the other side of the trees, and there is a wetland from the Neuse River beyond that. And then the river. Try and get that in NJ, NY, California for less than $200k or more. Regardless

UNC Health Care boosts the pay of 9,000 employees as it raises minimum wage

UNC Health Care is promising a $15 million thank-you to thousands of employees.

The Chapel Hill health care organization said Tuesday it will increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour in the Triangle, a move that will ultimately boost the pay of some 9,000 employees, nearly a third of its total workforce. The organization owns or operates 13 hospitals and employs about 30,000 people.

But UNC Health Care’s beneficence is limited to the Triangle, where it employs 21,500 people.

The health care system’s statement said the Triangle’s “higher cost of living, strong job market and competition for talented co-workers are key factors in the decision to make a living wage adjustment now.”

UNC Health Care plans to raise its minimum wage to $14 an hour on Jan. 13, and to $15 an hour in July. The employees who will get the raise include housekeepers, cashiers, stock clerks and nursing assistants. No one employed at UNC Health Care in the Triangle currently makes less than $12 an hour, said spokesman Alan Wolf. The state and federal minimum is $7.25 an hour.

“We are committed to providing a competitive living wage to support our workforce,” said Dr. Bill Roper, CEO of UNC Health Care, in a statement. “We are proud to employ the best people to fulfill our mission of caring for patients and their families, and offering a higher living wage is an important step we are able to take.”

So, what about those skilled workers who are making $15, 16, 17 an hour now? Will they be getting a raise, or will they be paid the same as the unskilled workers? There’s not doubt that the unskilled are necessary to run the business, but, should they make as much as the people who went to school, got a degree, perhaps a masters, and spent time learning to do their craft? Well, yes, those skilled workers will be making more

The pay raise will boost 3,750 employees to $15 an hour. As they move up the pay scale, their raises will push up the wages of employees higher up the ladder so that the organizational pay scale remains relationally intact

Further

UNC Health Care is a not-for-profit integrated health care system owned by the state of North Carolina and based in Chapel Hill. Originally established Nov. 1, 1998, by N.C.G.S. 116-37, UNC Health Care currently comprises UNC Hospitals and its provider network, the clinical programs of the UNC School of Medicine, and eleven affiliate hospitals and hospital systems across the state.

So, guess who is paying for this? That’s right, the taxpayers of the state. They’ll pay more through their taxes, as well as higher healthcare costs. Hooray!

Read: State Run Health System To Virtue Signal With Raise To $15 An Hour »

Posted in Healthcare, NC News | 52 Comments | Trackback URL
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